Gareth Southgate's harsh words after this miserable defeat at the Riverside Stadium must not go unheeded.

The Boro skipper described the performance as "unacceptable" and criticised the team for not being mentally strong enough to cope with the fall-out from the Carling Cup semi-final victory.

No doubt his comments will be welcomed by those regular fans who have seen too many of these below-par efforts this season.

It's true that the Carling Cup Final did cast its shadow over the Boro on a miserable afternoon.

But it goes deeper than that. Boro have fallen short of the required standard on several occasions this season, and on Saturday were generally disinterested in tackling a Blackburn Rovers side which looked there for the taking.

Those fans who had bought tickets on the strength of the semi-final defeat of Arsenal must have wondered what on earth was going on.

But for those of us who have witnessed the whole of the season, this was another 90 minutes of under-achievement at home.

Three wins in 13 Premier League games at the Riverside is a dreadful indictment of the effort which has been put in, because the team is better than this.

This is borne out by the fact that Boro have taken some notable scalps in reaching a major cup final, and are hard to beat on opponents' grounds.

Steve McClaren has done well to turn things around away from home in the current campaign, because Boro were a soft touch on their travels last season.

But it seems to have had the reverse effect at home, where many fans have now paid well over #300 to see 11 goals.

The failure to bring in a new striker in January was not through lack of effort, yet it was galling to see Blackburn's #1m new boy Jon Stead grab the winning goal with the most crucial of finishes.

Massimo Maccarone must be amazed to see his name in the starting line-up for every match, though on this occasion you could hardly blame the Italian for looking lost.

The creativity, particularly in the first half, was almost non-existent, and the service to Maccarone and Juninho was woeful.

Boro did wake up a little bit in the second half, but did not do enough. When they did threaten, they could not find a way past inspired Rovers keeper Brad Friedel.

It's clear that Boro are completely ineffective when the three-way partnership of Juninho, Gaizka Mendieta and Bolo Zenden is not functioning.

All three looked off the pace at times, though the same can be said of the team as a whole.

Boro could have done with an unbeaten run all the way from the Carling Cup semi-final to their trip to the Millennium Stadium.

But Saturday's abysmal display means they now have their backs to the wall as they try to pick up the pieces and restore morale in two difficult away tests.

Wednesday's visit to Old Trafford is followed, ten days later, by the Tyne-Tees derby at St James's Park.

The national media reporters were posing the question as to whether the previously-recorded double of a cup final appearance and relegation was a possibility.

Southgate would not entertain talk of the dreaded drop, but when he blurted out "stuff the Carling Cup", he left no doubts that the thing which really mattered was the Premier League.

The skipper has set his personal sights much higher than reaching cup finals, and he insisted that he was well aware of the reasons for Boro's failure to drag themselves into the top half of the table.

We all deserve better than this. But only McClaren and his players can bring about the required improvement.